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Sunday, August 1, 2010

Rain Rain Go Away Come Again Another Day

It is not the rainy season, but you could have fooled me. It rains almost daily, usually in the morning, but we have had plenty of days with only rain.Before the heavy rain started, we were sitting by the water, and began looking at the waves. It appeared as though the water was receding, and the waves were huge. I was with Rachel, and we had one thought on our minds, tsunami. My phone was broken, her phone had a dead battery, so if there was an emergency no one would be able to contact us. “When the water leaves the area and recedes further back into the ocean we make a run for the market. Climb up to the second floor, and try to climb onto the roof.” Thankfully, it was just our own fears getting the most of us, and nothing happened to cause us to evacuate. Later in Salelologa we were trying to dodge the rain. Taking taxis and trying to stay indoors as much as possible. Watching the rain out of our office window, the ceiling began to leak. A lake was beginning to form outside on the road. It was taking up the entire road. We were waiting for the bus, unsure of when the ferry schedule, especially because it is unpredictable especially on rainy days. None of us were looking forward to the bus, since on rainy days all of the windows were shut. It makes the bus extremely stuffy and hard to sit through long rides. I was standing on the chair waiting for the bus looking out the window. People were trying to walk around outside with umbrellas, were facing difficulties. The wind was too strong, and was no match for the umbrellas. The ferry was supposed to come awhile back, and we were still waiting. The bowl that was collecting our leaky ceiling water was getting full and I headed to our office bathroom. The bathroom for our office is shared with others. Since I have been there, there has never been a working light. It was raining so hard, that there began to be a leak there as well. The floor was a complete pool.The ferry finally showed up, about an hour and a half late, without passengers. It was the little boat and I heard that because of the rain and the rocky waves, they were not carrying passengers, only vehicles. As soon as the boat was about to dock. The busses left. As expected, they were stuffy with the windows being shut. Since the busses were very late leaving, they were also very full. The aisles were ful of boxes and barrels of different things. There was no free space. There were 3 or 4 to a seat, people doing balancing acts trying to stand on whatever little floor was left. I had my own balancing act. I was sitting on a little piece of seat, with a bucket between my legs and a one year old on my lap. Out the door were plenty of people holding onto whatever little piece of bus they could hold onto as they hung out of the bus. It was very interesting, but I was happy with the bus ride was over. The following day it was still raining. I was happy that I had planned on going to the closest church so I did not have to walk on the muddy road far in my church white clothes. I put on my raincoat and headed out the door.Whenever it is rainy, everything starts late. People are normally walking places, so people need extra time to get to church, school, meetings, or wherever the daily agenda for the village is. I showed up a few minutes early, and the pastor wasn’t even there yet. I sat with some kids and enjoyed watching the rain pour outside. I saw many people hurrying trying to position their umbrellas to stop the rain from hitting them. There was a horse outside that was spooked by the rain.After church, I headed home in the rain to take a nice rainy day nap.The bad thing about rainy days is that you can never do laundry. Even if you wash them all, there is no place to hang them to dry them.Another bad thing is the piped water is always shut off in the rain. I think it is to prevent us from getting muddy water, but it is frustrating when water is shut off for a day or so. At least rainy days are relaxing, you can nap and catch up on little things in the house. I sewed up the little holes in my tasis for school and relaxed.

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